Yoga for Regular Guys by Diamond Dallas Page
O.K. Where to start? I picked this up because my husband is 6’6 and about 250lbs, obsessed with wrestling and the stiffest man I have ever met. We worked for weeks on loosening his hamstrings so that he could touch his toes for a police officer physical exam.
I thought surely, this book, written by a 3 time world champion wrestler would motivate him. OMG – I don’t know where to start. The first photo is of a truck driver attempting Parsvakonasana in front of his Mack Truck with a scantily clad cowgirl sticking her assets out at him. The preface is written by Rob Zombie with all of the F*Bombs that entails.
The photos go downhill from there, sequences with women bent over full cleavage and thong on display, and some photos (if shot from a different angle) could be used in gynecological text books, others have poor alignment for yoga- but would look wonderful in a porno. That being said, you have to realize this is actually a well written book for its intended audience, which DDP points out at the get go is not girlie-hippie men who are into saying Namaste, it is for manly men who are into using yoga class to pick up scantily clad women with enough silicon to manufacture their own yoga mats.
There are several quotes in here that first shocked me, then made me laugh – my husband was cracking up.
You can’t take yourself too seriously, or yoga.
A few times I thought about an experience I had during my first teacher training when the head of the show, after expounding on how if you are angry it is not because someone has angered you, it is because anger resides in you and manifests – went off on me for jokingly saying something like- "Didn’t he do that kind of fast, or maybe its just me – I like it slow and men tend to like it fast." The training leader lit into me with "Do you think that’s funny? Do you think that helps anything, making jokes, highlighting differences?" Sounds like someone had their own internal anger, but of course since this was the leader – that didn’t count – I was to blame.
While reading the book I thought how this teacher would recoil at this book without seeing the humor. Of course the vibe of the book borders on misogynistic, and do we really need anymore jacked up men being told – you go guy? Who knows.
The sequences in the back were actually well laid out, even if they have made up asana names and a whole lot of flesh (completely removed from the idea and practice of Brahmacharya. The principles of this book though are actually founded in yoga practice, however far removed from the idea of samadhi ot may be. There are some additional sections in the back about preventative maintenance, health, etc.
You never know – even though the book touts a non-spiritual completely fitness oriented education I have learned that people come to yoga for many reasons, and sometimes they find the need to look further than their original goal.
Seriously though, if you are in need of a good laugh, or may be cry – depending on how you feel about the capitalization of yoga – you should pick a copy up. None of the sequences were new to me, in fact I have been using similar ones for the past 5 years, with more difficult variations thrown in to challenge students, but I liked the visual representation of them. The book ends with a hardy congrats, a photo of one of the models (a man who lost 100 lbs off of 300lbs) in svasana with a cigarette hanging from his mouth and a bottle of Jack in his hands.
I give this book 4 stars because it achieves what it sets out to, is easy to read and can be a stepping stone for men to allow themselves to explore and actual yoga class / style.
